Health Services In Poland Research Articles

Opportunities for and constraints to integration of health services in Poland

At the beginning of the article the typologies, expected outcomes and forces aiming at health care integration are discussed. Integration is recognised as a multidimensional concept. The suggested typologies of integration are based on structural configurations, co-ordination mechanisms (including clinical co-ordination), and driving forces. A review of the Polish experience in integration/disintegration of health care systems is the main part of the article. Creation of integrated health care management units (ZOZs) in the beginning of the 1970s serves as an example of structural vertical integration missing co-ordination mechanisms. ZOZs as huge, costly and inflexible organisations became subjects of public criticism and discredited the idea of health care integration. At the end of the 1980s and in the decade of the 1990s, management of public health care was decentralised, the majority of ZOZs dismantled, and many health care public providers got the status of independent entities. The private sector developed rapidly. Sickness funds, which in 1999 replaced the previous state system, introduced "quasi-market" conditions where health providers have to compete for contracts. Some providers developed strategies of vertical and horizontal integration to get a competitive advantage. Consolidation of private ambulatory clinics, the idea of "integrated care" as a "contracting package", development of primary health care and ambulatory specialist clinics in hospitals are the examples of such strategies. The new health policy declared in 2002 has recognised integration as a priority. It stresses the development of payment mechanisms and information base (Register of Health Services--RUM) that promote integration. The Ministry of Health is involved directly in integrated emergency system designing. It seems that after years of disintegration and deregulation the need for effective integration has become obvious.

New epidemiological problem in Poland: vertical transmission of human immunodeficiency virus.

New diagnostic, prophylactic and treatment perspectives in HIV infection of the fetus and newborn is a challenge for health services in Poland. In view of these advances, the ascertainment of HIV status of all pregnant women is important both for individuals and for the health services. By law, laboratory HIV testing in Poland can be performed only on a voluntary basis. All newly diagnosed cases of AIDS and HIV infections are anonymously reported to the National Institute of Hygiene in Warsaw. There are no clear data about vertical transmission of HIV infection in Poland mostly because of the unknown number of women who are positive at delivery. Almost all our data were collected from Polish Regional AIDS/HIV Diagnostic and Therapeutic Centres. During the period 1986-95, 88 children were delivered by HIV-positive women and vertical transmission occurred in 15 cases.

Regional integration of health services in Poland — An ambitious pilot project

A new and very important feature of the health care reform in Poland is a set of initiatives emerging locally and striving for decentralisation of the management structure. The most promising manifestation of this process consists in the ambition to set up regional systems of integrated health services, guaranteeing provision of comprehensive care and run efficiently by competent managers. The direction of reform has been strongly encouraged by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, but still faces many barriers, mainly because of the misuse of the concept of integration by former health politicians. In the seventies and eighties integration was implemented in a very formal way, neglecting both medical professional attitudes and managerial abilities of decision makers. A major mistake was the resignation of inclusion of the rich ‘parallel systems’ within the services available to the general public. In the new political circumstances regionalised services, or health consortia as they are called, are a deliberate response to the need for decentralisation and efficient use of scarce resources. Three regions which volunteered to start an extensive experiment were selected through a formal competitive process. They include more than six million inhabitants and almost one quarter of the territory of the country. New organisational arrangements, networks of contracts and agreements, channels of financing and quality control programmes will be monitored in pilot areas to make them applicable all over the country.

Dental hygienists as a new element in the oral health service in Poland.

A comparison of the number, employment, utilization and activities of dental hygienists in Poland between 1977 and 1982 is described. In spite of a distinct increase in number and better distribution in the country, the employment of hygienists in the oral health service is still low. However, the majority of dental hygienists are employed in the oral health service for children, working mostly as dental assistants doing fluoride prophylaxis and dental health education in addition. The percentage of operating dental hygienists is also low. The need for their preventive activity is great, as the dental caries rate in Polish children is generally high.

Health services financing in Poland.

The right to a free health service is identified as one of the founding rules of socialism; yet other sources of funding, both public and private, should not be neglected. This article reviews the major sources of financing health services in Poland. In particular, a description is made of the size and composition of funding from non-governmental sources including: quasi-budget funds, other funds, and out-of-pocket payments; and some proposals are made for change. Further work is needed in developing the criteria by which policy choices can be made, and in developing the information base; at the same time, political and social criteria will still be very important, not least on the issue of user charges.

Role of Anesthesiology in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Poland

Improvements of results in emergency care of critically ill patients can be realized if EMS organizations are properly based on local conditions. The Emergency Medical Unit is the first of three parts of the Integrated Health Service in Poland. The second part is in-hospital treatment. The third part is outpatient care. In most hospitals, the head of the department of anesthesiology and intensive therapy coordinates each emergency medical unit. Each unit consists of ambulances (mobile intensive care units), admission (emergency) rooms, and an intensive medical care unit (ICU). A specialization program was created and physicians who complete this type of training obtain the title “specialist in anesthesiology and intensive therapy.”This four year specialization program contains the educational elements necessary to administer all types of modern anesthesia, and provides full preparation for work in mobile and stationary intensive medical care units as well. Such training has also given these specialists the chance to initiate treatment methods for chronic pain. An examination consisting of practical tests, multiple choice written knowledge tests, and oral tests completes the program. The latter is a conversation with a commission, consisting of full professors and associate professors in anesthesiology and intensive therapy.

Occupational health services in Poland.

Occupational Health Services in Poland Get access J.W. Hill J.W. Hill Medical Officer Pilkington Bros. Ltd. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Occupational Medicine, Volume 19, Issue 1, 1969, Pages 104–108, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/19.1.104 Published: 01 January 1969